Avanti and the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) have suggestions for travel advisors seeking to create FIT itineraries to combat overtourism in Japan along the “Golden Route,” which includes Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. In 2025, avoiding tourist crowds will be particularly challenging because Osaka is hosting the World Expo from April 13 to October 13, 2025.
Avanti offers 17 other destinations in Japan, more than 170 hotels, more than 80 tours and experiences, and 13 vacation packages that go beyond the "Golden Route." Add-on tours and experiences can be booked that focus on a variety of interests: active travel, wellness, local food and beverage specialties, wildlife, art and design, traditional crafts, history, gardens, shrines and temples, and shopping.
Avanti and JNTO have partnered to produce a 50-page e-brochure, “Japan: A World Apart,” a new microsite, content.avantidestinations.com/jnto; and a recorded webinar.
Two new destinations, Nagano and Suruga, have been added to Avanti’s Japan lineup in the past year. A new five-day customizable itinerary, “Gotta Go to Nagano,” is highlighted in the e-brochure and may be combined with additional destinations. This itinerary includes a private tour of the snow monkey park and nearby town of Obuse; private soba-making class and visit to the Togakushi shrine; private tour of Nagano sights; roundtrip ticket on Japan’s high-speed train, shinkansen, between Tokyo and Nagano; daily breakfast; and choice of accommodations.
A new 14-day, fixed-price, non-customizable package “Ultimate Japan” stops in Hakone, Takayama, Kanazawa and Hiroshima, as well as Tokyo and Kyoto. Avanti also offers shorter-duration new fixed-price packages in Japan that take in destinations beyond the Golden Route.
Among the new and spotlighted tours and experiences which may be added to any custom itinerary are: a shared Kanazawa morning tour with class on making temarizushi (bite-sized sushi balls) and tea culture experience; traditional crafts tour in Kanazawa where clients learn how to apply gold leaf to chopsticks or a small plate and how to dye cloth in the same manner used to make kimonos; soba-making workshop and visit to Togakushi shrine in a sacred forest (from Nagano); cycling tour in the town of Azumino, home to many art museums and galleries, with a visit to a wasabi farm with picturesque canals and windmills; shared nighttime flying squirrel watching tour; shared Ghibli Park and Museum of Flight tour; private evening Yatai Food Stalls tour in Fukuoka; war heritage tour in Okinawa; and a private evening food tour in Okinawa.
Some of the destinations beyond the "Golden Route" include:
- Aomori – Relatively unexplored, Aomori is surrounded on three sides by the ocean with mountains and river valleys, and offers unspoiled wilderness for hikers, seafood, festivals and UNESCO World Heritage Sites
- Fukuoka – Known for its noodle specialties and the street food sold in its Yatai stalls, open from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.
- Hakone – Famed for its open-air museum of art, with over 300 works by Picasso, and sculpture
- Hida-Takayama – A gateway to outdoor mountain activities, as well as home to buckwheat noodles
- Karuizawa – Resort town in the mountains near Nagano with forests to hike and cycle in, golf courses, hot springs and skiing opportunities
- Koyasan – Small town sacred to Shingon Buddhism with a shrine reachable by walking on an ancient forest path, surrounded by over 200,000 gravestones
- Naoshima Island – Completely dedicated to contemporary art
- Okinawa – Renowned for its subtropical climate, fresh seafood, scuba diving and snorkeling
- Sapporo – On Japan’s northernmost island known for its volcanoes and hot springs, home to a beer museum and annual snow festival, as well as an ideal place to ski
- Yokohama – Filled with parks, a traditional Japanese garden and museums, including a ramen museum complete with replicas of old ramen restaurants
Other destinations include Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kamakura, Kanazawa, Kinosaki, Matsumoto, Nikko, Obuse and Miyajima Island.
For more information, visit www.book.avantidestinations.com.
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